Stamps’ rookie revelation Jones making it tough for his family to remain Riders fans

Regina native last sold 50-50 tickets at Mosaic Stadium, but his season-ticket holder father may have to don a Stamps jersey now

Calgary Stampeders rookie entre Brett Jones’ family has grown up in Regina as Riders fans, but his father and co. will have to switch allegiances.

Photograph by: Stuart Gradon
, Calgary Herald

Every weekday at precisely 10 a.m., Rob Jones takes a break from dispensing prescriptions to catch up with his buddies over coffee in the booming oil community of Weyburn, Sask.

Like at most Saskatchewan establishments, the subject of conversation at the Captain’s Table invariably turns to football and all matters related to the beloved Roughriders.

How will Darian Durant fare at the controls this season? Will Geroy Simon live up to the Superman nickname in green? Can Ricky Foley and John Chick inflict grave physical punishment on opposing quarterbacks?

This week, however, the enemy Calgary Stampeders keep weaving their way into the conversation.

A change in allegiance is afoot.

“It’s an adjustment,” concedes Jones, a longtime Roughrider season-ticket holder considering wearing red tonight when the Stampeders visit Mosaic Stadium in Canadian Football League exhibition action. “That horse in Calgary always used to bother me. When it used to run around the sidelines after a Calgary touchdown, that used to bother me.

“But I’m coming to grips with that.”

He’s coming to grips with committing treason (Saskatchewan style) by way of cheering for the Stampeders — although most kind folks will no doubt forgive Jones his transgressions. After all, his son Brett is trying out for the Stampeders. In fact, of the biggest surprises of training camp, the six-foot-two, 319-pound fire hydrant is bidding to start at centre.

Offensive linemen normally apprentice for at least a year before earning a starting job, especially in the middle with the additional responsibility of making the calls. But Jones is not your normal kid coming out of college in any respect.

“He’s one of the most well-rounded young men that you’ll ever meet,” says University of Regina head coach Frank McCrystal. “He’s an outstanding student. He’s an outstanding community person and leader. And the thing that’s obviously attracted everybody’s attention in Calgary is that he’s a very good football player.

“So I think that combination makes him quite special.”

What makes Jones special is the fact he let all CFL teams know of his application to medical school BEFORE the 2013 draft so they didn’t waste a high-round pick on someone who might not report.

What makes Jones special is the fact he dazzled in his first pre-season game at centre last Friday against the B.C. Lions (to the point the Stamps are pondering a move of the deck chairs on the line to give him a starting spot.)

What makes Jones special — especially in the eyes of his dad — is the way he doted on his grandmother in the final weeks and months of her life.

“He was basically his grandmother’s caregiver,” Rob Jones says. “He took her to all her appointments and the Rider games when she was feeling well enough. He loved to do that. And you should see what he did to her garden last summer. He planted all these flowers and basically transformed it.

“There is no doubt in my mind that she would have been in a nursing home if it weren’t for Brett.”

Helen Roundy died on Feb. 9 of lymphoma. She was 87. Brett lived with her for his first three years at the University of Regina.

And so on the day the Stampeders selected Jones in the second round (16th overall), he thought of his grandma (in fact, he was siding her house when the phone call came to tell him the news.) And on the day the University of Saskatchewan e-mailed to deny his application to medical school, he thought of his grandma.

And tonight, when Jones runs out of the tunnel for his first professional game on Saskatchewan soil, he’ll think of his grandma.

“She would have been ecstatic to see this,” Rob Jones says. “Beyond ecstatic. Football was her element.”

Only 21, but mature beyond his years, Brett Jones realizes the importance of not getting caught up in his press clippings. After all, he hasn’t earned anything just yet. The Stampeders could even send him back to Regina for his final year eligibility with the Rams.

Don’t bet on that happening any time soon.

“I was just happy to get drafted,” he says. “I never thought really that I would ever play in the CFL. So now that I’m here and getting to play and getting a chance, it’s just so exciting.”

And to play at Mosaic Stadium? Well that makes it even more exciting.

“I’ve been to almost every game there over the last couple of years, because I was doing the Ram 50-50 ticket stuff,” he said.”It’s going to be cool to be coming out of the tunnel instead of watching the other guys come out.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

As for school, Jones hasn’t given up on the goal of following his dad, the pharmacist, and mom, a chiropractor, into the medical field.

A dream deferred is not a dream abandoned.

“Yeah, I was disappointed not to get in,” he says. “I’m just more excited to do this now. Definitely, it’s really addicting.

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